Prior art references considered to be relevant as a background to the invention are listed below and their contents are incorporated herein by reference. Acknowledgement of the references herein is not to be inferred as meaning that these are in any way relevant to the patentability of the invention disclosed herein.
Thermal (IR—Infra Red) signature is used in many military as well as civilian applications for locating a target. U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,190,304 and 6,720,907 and Patent application Nos. 2007/026177 and 2007/0028791 illustrate several known approaches for using thermal signature.
Target simulation is needed for various tasks, such as operators' training, equipment design and testing (e.g. sensors, countermeasures, guidance systems, targeting systems), operational tasks (e.g. as a decoy), and many more. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,055,909 and 6,393,989 and EP Patent Nos. 0911601 and 1637829 disclose several known approaches for simulating the thermal signature of a target.
As an example, in accordance with one known approach in the field of Long-Range Missiles (LRM), simulation of the thermal signature of a threat (e.g. enemy missile) is achieved by providing the simulation missile with substantially the same structure and trajectory as the threat (target). Thus, the thermal signature of the simulation missile is built in accordance with the aerodynamics properties of the simulation missile. Following this approach, dedicated simulation missiles need to be developed in order to simulate a specific target. This takes valuable time and resources.
There is a need in the art for an efficient, relatively inexpensive method and system for simulating the IR (Thermal) Signature of a moving or a stationary body in the sky (e.g. a missile or a decoy flying in space including in the exo-atmosphere and endo-atmosphere. There is a need in the art for a versatile system and a flexible method, suitable for simulation of different thermal signature profiles. There is a further need in the art for simulating the dynamics of a thermal signature on-demand in space and time, in a desired wavelength range.